After stopping by The Village Apartments to see Thomas Carson before he went to work, Colby, with Duke at his side, again found no answer at Carson’s front door. His white SUV still sat in the parking lot. He decided to retreat to his patrol vehicle and wait for Carson to head for his vehicle to go to work.
But when Colby left the building, he discovered the white SUV was gone. Had Carson somehow seen him approaching his apartment complex and escaped out an alternative entrance to avoid him?
The more Carson evaded him the more Colby thought the man had something to hide. When he climbed into his vehicle after securing Duke in the back, Colby received a message that there was another suspicious backpack found at IFI. He took down the needed information where the suspicious bag was discovered. That was where Beth worked, and she was the one who reported it. He could imagine what she was going through, especially after what happened yesterday.
Normally in an evacuation the elevators were shut down. In this case, he needed to arrive at the place where the backpack was found fast. “Make sure they hold an elevator on the ground level, so I can get to the seventh floor right away,” Colby said to the dispatcher as he gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles whitened.
As he started the engine, he ground his teeth together. Not far from the company’s headquarters, he would be able to respond to the call quickly.
When Colby arrived three minutes later at IFI, he was the first responder. He jumped from the patrol SUV and snapped the leash on Duke’s collar. If there was a bomb in the backpack, his dog would be able to tell without moving it. He ran toward the building. An alarm was going off. People were flooding into the corridors from their offices on the first floor.
A security guard held an elevator open for Colby.
“I need to go straight up to the seventh floor.”
“This elevator has an express button for the executive floor.” The guard showed him what to press. “That’s where you’re going.”
“Thanks. Help to move everyone out as fast as you can.” After the guard left, Colby punched the button for the executive floor. As it ascended, Colby called Beth’s cell phone to see if she was safely out of the building.
“Beth, where are you?”
“I’m outside the breakroom on the seventh floor.”
“You should be evacuating the building along with the other employees.”
“Where are you?”
“In the elevator coming to your floor. Which way do I go to get to the breakroom quickly?”
“I’m coming to the bank of elevators.”
When the door slid open, the first thing Colby saw was Beth with creases of worry carved into her beautiful face. “Show me where to go. Then I want you to leave.”
“You’re going to stay around?” she asked as she rushed down a corridor.
“Yes, until the bomb squad arrives if Duke thinks it’s a bomb.” Colby entered a room with a mini kitchen, a table with eight chairs around it and a couch along a wall. He unhooked Duke’s leash. “Find.” As the dog made a beeline toward the refrigerator and sat, Colby followed. “Go now. The safest route out of here is to take the stairs on the other side of the building.” He glanced back to make sure she obeyed.
* * *
Clutching her purse, Beth didn’t want to leave Colby alone with a possible bomb only a couple of feet away from him. Still, she did as he said and took the staircase, jammed with other people making their way to the first floor.
Mollie descended with her. She leaned toward Beth and said in a voice louder than normal. “I just got a call from my husband. This isn’t a fire, but there’s a possible bomb in the building. Could it be the person who left one at the Prescott Rug Gallery yesterday?”
“A bomb?” a man in advertisement shouted right behind Beth.
The woman next to him screamed and tried to wedge herself between Mollie and Beth to move faster down the stairs. Her friend next to Beth stumbled and fell into the man in front of her. He turned quickly and saved Mollie from going forward.
Beth narrowed her eyes on the man from advertising and the woman behind her. “Quiet. We’re almost to the first floor.” She leaned toward them and whispered, “We don’t want a stampede.”
With the color draining from her face, the lady nodded.
When Beth was right above the second-floor landing on the stairs, a rush of people surged forward, grappling for a position in the line. Another person yelled, “Bomb.”
The momentum to flee the building increased, and all Beth could do was pray and try to keep up with the panicked crowd. A man from the second floor knocked into her, slamming her against another employee. Beth fought to keep upright. Sweat ran down her face, and her breathing became shallow and fast.
By the time she reached the first floor, her progress almost came to a standstill while the mass funneled themselves through a one-door exit. When she emerged into the warm spring day, she hurried away from the building. She stopped in the parking lot and swept around to look at IFI. She struggled to slow her fast heartbeat while she took in deep breaths.
No sight of Colby.
A police officer stood nearby shouting to the crowd, “Get away from here. Stay behind the barricades.” He gestured toward the barriers across the road and at the end of the street.
As Beth headed for the security line, she kept looking over her shoulder at the main doors. Where was Colby? Was the bomb squad here yet? What if it went off with him still inside?
She scanned the area and spied the bomb squad’s van. She blew out a long sigh. Hopefully, that meant Colby would be outside soon. But the minutes ticked by, and there wasn’t a glimpse of him coming or going from the building nor among the police spread out to keep the people away from IFI.
Nibbling on her thumbnail, Beth focused her stare on the main entrance. When the bomb squad came out with a blast container, she kept her attention on the door. Still no Colby. As a few of the people left, she began pacing. Her boss was talking with the bomb squad commander. The man passed a megaphone to Mr. Knight as another police officer and a dog went into the building.
“We’re shutting down the building for the day. The police will be going through IFI from top to bottom. Please go home, and you’ll receive a call to tell you when it’s okay to return to work.”
Reporters, standing not far from Beth, shouted questions about the incident.
“Is this the same guy who left a bomb yesterday?” one yelled above several others.
“We can’t confirm this is the same person at this time,” a police captain said into a microphone thrust close to his face. “We’ll have a press conference when we have more information. Right now, we need you to disperse. For safety reasons, leave the scene.”
Beth didn’t want to leave. What if there was more than one bomb? Could Colby and the others find them before they went off?
Lord, please keep him and the other police officers safe.
Beth followed the crowd heading for their cars. At least she could call some security firms for suggestions on what she should have at her house. When she arrived on her street, she thought of going to her home to make the calls, but she drove past her place and parked in Ann’s driveway. Glancing two doors down sent a shiver up her spine. She couldn’t go to her home right now.
Before Beth could ring the doorbell, Ann appeared and stepped back to let Beth into her house.
The older woman took a hard look at Beth. “I saw you pull into the driveway from the living room window. What’s wrong?”
“I found a bomb left at IFI.” Beth told Ann the details as she walked into the kitchen. “After this morning and yesterday, I didn’t want to be alone.”
Ann hugged Beth. “Colby will let us know what’s going on when he can. I have tea. Would you like a cup?”
“Yes, thank you. Could I have the soothing and calming tea you gave me previously? I need that. It’s only nine, and I’m already tied up into knots.”
“Child, I would be too if I found a bomb.”
Beth sat in a chair, her legs too shaky to keep standing.
Ann put the teapot on then took two mugs from the cabinet. When she brought a cup and set it down in front of Beth on a placemat, she laid her hand on Beth’s shoulder. “You aren’t alone in this. First and foremost, the Lord is looking out for you. You’re one of His children. Then there’s me and my grandson.” She took a seat in a chair catty-cornered from Beth and added, “After you left this morning, I called a few friends who’ve recently gotten a security system. I wrote down their information and who they recommend doing it.”
Beth smiled. “Ann, thanks. You’re a dear friend.” She drank a sip of the tea. “I’ll call those security firms and decide what I want and can afford.”
It would give her something to do while she waited for Colby to let her know what happened at IFI after she left. From the reaction of the police at the scene, there must have been a bomb in the backpack. She shuddered at the thought of how close she’d been to it.
Why would someone plant a bomb at IFI?
* * *
Colby pulled into his grandmother’s driveway and parked next to Beth’s car. Both he and Duke needed a break after spending intense hours searching several floors of the IFI building while other police officers and canine partners, some from other parts of Oklahoma, took the rest of the company. The only bomb found was on the seventh floor where Beth discovered it. Why there? What connected IFI and the Prescott Rug Gallery?
Beth opened the front door before he had a chance to insert his key. Her cheeks were flushed as though she had hurried into the entry hall, but for a long moment, he couldn’t take his eyes off her beautiful face framed by a mass of blond hair. What drove him earlier today was the thought what would have happened if Beth hadn’t found the backpack.
Her focus remained locked with his. “Did you find any more bombs? Or find the person who’s doing this?”
“No to both questions.” He entered the house as Beth stepped to the side. The same fear he saw yesterday in her blue eyes lurked there again, and all he wanted to do was wipe that look away. He unhooked Duke’s leash, put it on the small table nearby, then grasped her hands. “But I’m hoping you can help me.”
“Me. How?”
“I need to interview you about finding the backpack. You may have seen something that might help us.”
“Other than the backpack, what else?”
Colby strolled into the living room. “Where’s Nana?”
“At church. She should be home in an hour or so. Velma came by and picked her up. I think she needed to keep busy, so she didn’t think about you still being at IFI. She wanted me to go too, but I wouldn’t have been any help.”
While Beth sat at one end of the couch, he took a seat at the other end. “After going through security, what did you do?”
“I took the stairs up to the seventh floor. I’ve been doing that since I worked there as a form of exercise. I didn’t see anyone in the stairwell with a backpack. Carol Dunkin and Janet Ripley were in front of me until they exited at the sixth floor where they work.”
“When you got to the seventh floor, who did you see?”
“A few people on the seventh floor when I first came in. There were two men at the elevator, but the only person I saw that I know is Mollie Zoller, who works in the office next to mine. There are four hundred employees in the building. She might know who the men were. They were both in their thirties, I think, but I’ve only seen one of them before at IFI. They took the elevator down as I passed them.”
Colby wrote down Mollie’s name on his pad to follow up after his interview with Beth. “Did you go right to the breakroom?”
“No. I always go to my office, put my purse away, and make sure there isn’t anything that has to be done right away. Then I make the coffee for Mr. Knight, myself, and anyone else who wants some.” She grinned. “Making coffee is one of my talents. At lunch, I make another pot at the request of my fellow workers on the floor.”
“When you went to the breakroom, was there anyone in there?”
She nodded. “Two people were leaving when I came around the corner to go to the breakroom. They work on my floor. April Dawson and Kay Smith.”
Colby put those names in his notebook too. “It might be a longshot, but the security tape of that hallway was down. I don’t believe that was a coincidence.”
“I thought we had a good security system in place.”
“The bomb didn’t have any metal that would be discovered by the metal detector used at IFI. The type of bomb was the same as the one found at the store yesterday.”
“So, it’s possible the person who left the bombs works at IFI?”
“Yes, or some kind of tie to the company.”
She clasped her hands together tightly. “How many minutes until it would have gone off?”
“Thirty minutes. It was more powerful than the one at the store. A different color but the same type of backpack. Do you know if the breakroom is used that early in the morning?”
“Occasionally people eat something for breakfast that they picked up on the way to work or some will put a lunch they brought in the refrigerator. But most of the time the breakroom isn’t used until around nine-thirty.”
“And you make your coffee at about eight-thirty every morning?”
“Yes, depending on Mr. Knight’s schedule. Sometimes a little earlier or later.”
“How often do the two people that left there this morning use the breakroom at that time?”
“Not often, that I know of. This morning I was earlier than usual because I didn’t sleep well last night. I went to make coffee a little before eight.”
He hadn’t slept much either. Since Beth told him the night before she would drive her car to IFI, he’d left for work before seven and had wanted to connect with Carson.
“Oh, no!” Beth widened her eyes and covered her mouth with her hand.
“What’s wrong?”
“If I hadn’t come to the breakroom early, the bomb would have gone off before the bomb squad arrived.”
He’d known that but hadn’t wanted Beth to realize how close she’d come to being killed. She already had a problem with someone breaking into her house. He scooted toward her and took her trembling hand. “You saved a lot of people. Focus on that.”
“How about the cameras on each floor?”
“The one to that hall malfunctioned for a while early this morning. That’s when the bomb must have been planted and set to go off when everyone was at work. We will comb through all the video we have of the building, but that will take a while.” And the people in the building at that time were being investigated. He would be kept busy as long as this perpetrator remained at large. “There were two K-9 teams with dogs that specialized in finding bombs at first. Then later a few teams from around the state came and helped.”
“I can’t believe the bomber could be someone who works at IFI. What if he tries to do it again?”
“My commander told me that IFI is bringing in several bomb-sniffing dogs. That way the building will be safe as they tighten their security procedures. Duke and I and the other K-9 team will be available for any other sighting in Cimarron City.”
“What does the Prescott Rug Gallery and IFI have in common that a bomber would target them?”
“Good question. If we could figure that out, we could close in on the person responsible. I hope there’s a connection. If this is random, it may be harder to discover and solve who’s behind it.”
“Random? I hate the idea of someone at IFI being responsible, but random is worse. The list of suspects is a hundred percent more.” Lines of worry crinkled her forehead.
Before he could say anything else, his cell phone rang, and he quickly answered it. “A backpack was found at Cimarron City Bank. You’re two minutes away,” the police dispatcher said.